It sounded like from the town hall meeting that if things didn’t change in 4-6 weeks that a layoff could occur.
They did not receive COVID reimbursement money from most customers. All that COVID time we were forced to take during the summer was a financial loss for the company. It’s still a puzzle to me why customers aren’t reimbursing us just a little.
By customers I assume you mean DCSA, DHS/CPB, et al. Yeah, this would seems like a good thing. These government agencies should show a little love to their hardworking BI contractors. The money is already budgeted (set aside) for these agencies and they won’t be returning any of it.
Furthermore, it’s not a zero sum game. The U.S. government is now funded on debt. Taxation is now pretty much irrelevant in our monetarist economy.
The U.S. government now spends more than double what it gets through taxation. Federal money comes from writing debt and monetizing the value of the global reserve currency which the Fed controls. They can simply siphon off the value of every dollar in existence… presto magico… with monetarist sleight-of-hand policy. It’s literally conjuring up money in a sense.
Btw, for those interested in how this new economy works here’s where to start:
While the outright U.S. debt is closing in on $28 trillion according to the debt clock (https://www.usdebtclock.org/), according to Boston University economist, Laurence Kotlikoff, the total U.S. government debt (i.e., debt and obligations) was $222 trillion in a 2012 assessment. (Economist Laurence Kotlikoff: U.S. $222 Trillion in Debt | RealClearPolicy)
1 Like
It is my understanding that any company who takes cares act funding has a set of regulations they must comply with. Not laying off employees for a certain time period is one stipulation. If I had to go out on a limb I would say this is likely why cares act funds didnt happen for Perspecta. Just like announcing mandatory PTO for who knows how long will nudge employees to leave on their own and save them additional money they dont have to pay out once layoffs start happening.
Before CE (Continuing Evaluation), the T-3 and T-5 interviews and cases would balance out, meaning the easy ones would pay for the time consuming difficult ones. Correct me if I am wrong, but with CE, only the difficult ones will need to be assigned. If I only had difficult cases, for the same pay, you could never make enough money to make a living off of. Now that Min wage has caught up to the min wage for BIs, it is easier and more profitable to just get a min wage job.
Even as a LLC, with 25% (at least) of your wage going to expenses and another 25% going to taxes, is is hardly worth the time anymore.
Until they increase the fees by at least 50%, this industry is doomed. I amazes me how the Gov will spend a dollar to save a dime…
2 Likes
That’s my feeling as well. But, once we become Peraton all bets are off. I think layoffs are pretty much a cyclical thing for every defense contractor. Perspecta was lucky in the fact that they had mass layoffs in January 2020 that kept us from sinking during Covid.
1 Like
I’m just glad that the Fed gov does not waste money on giving Investigators a pay increase but spends tax payer money wisely on " US Congress clears $25 million for democracy, gender programs in Pakistan". Of course I am joking. It is very sad that there has not been a pay raise for ESIs or source interviews for the past 8-10 years, but 25 million can be given to Pakistan. Unreal. Elections matter. Good luck everyone.
1 Like
DCSA does not set the prices paid to independent contractors, the contractor companies set the prices.
The contract companies figure out how much they can charge DCSA to keep the contract and how little they can pay the ICs for the companies’ profit margin.
DoD sets the prices based on the overall annual program costs forecast. When the contractor companies low ball bids, DoD lowers the cost to other agencies.
Perspecta has been giving merit percentage increases to investigators for the last 3-4 years. It took about 8 years of pushing from the field to initiate something that should have been a no brainer. Unfortunately, I think the investigator business model does need a constant source of new inexperienced investigators who are willing to do and ask questions that aren’t necessarily “needed” for the investigation and often times experienced investigators aren’t willing to do this, while the newbies are willing to do anything to get promoted. Merit increases tend to keep employees from leaving.
1 Like
Weeble: There have not been any increase in fees paid to Contract Investigators for 10 years. There is no need to ask questions that are not “needed”. Asking questions that are not part of the investigation or on the “form” raises privacy concerns for the Subject. If OPM wanted to know that unneeded information them OPM would have added those questions to the form. Adding unnecessary information into the report will result in Refiles and additional questions from Review ( which is unpaid work).
1 Like
I am assuming you are referring to the fixed rate contract fees paid to contracting companies for various types of dcsa investigations. (ie. meaning that these fees have been stagnant for 10 years) I can only assume that the employee investigator salary pay increases that Perspecta has paid the last few years is just profits they are willing to give up and give to their employees. That may change once publicly traded company Perspecta transforms into private equity owned Peraton in a few months. I can’t speak to any pay increases for individual self employed contractors or subs to Perspecta. I have no idea if there have received any pay increases.
The Wage Determination (WD) sets the minimum hourly pay for each of the four levels of Background Investigator. NoFault RZ is correct in that the WD has not increased in many years. backgdinvestigator is also correct that DCSA does not set the price paid to IC but it does set the hourly rate for contractor employees. The WD also sets vacation hours, holidays and the rate of Health & Welfare that is mandated. The H&W is the only thing that has risen over the years.
The WD is required to be posted for all employees but good luck finding it.
BTW, the WD for BI is the only one that does not have a geographical differential so that the rate for a BI in Manhattan, KS is the same for a BI in New York City.